Half-Life 2: Episode 2 – “Little Rocket Man” Gnome Achievement Tips

December 27th, 2007 by Tommy Gun

When I first read about the gnome achievement, I knew I had to do it (partly because it sounded fun, partly because I love Amelie). I had already beaten Episode 2 on the PC, but we just got it for the 360, so I wanted to play through it again anyway (points!).

This actually isn’t as hard as you might think. There are a lot of battles where you can just set him down somewhere until after the fight. If you know the game (I assume everyone will have played through this episode at least once before trying this achievement!), you’ll know which rooms you’ll be coming back to, so you can leave him for large sections of the game. The rocket is found well before the end of the game, so it’s only a few hours of play anyway.

This is not a guide for the whole episode, just some tips on where to safely leave the gnome.

SPOILERS!! SPOILERS!! SPOILERS!! SPOILERS!! SPOILERS!! SPOILERS!!

SPOILERS!! SPOILERS!! SPOILERS!! SPOILERS!! SPOILERS!! SPOILERS!!

Getting the Gnome

About five or ten minutes into the game, when Alyx first turns on a monitor to talk to her dad, the gnome (also known as Trey by some) is under an empty wooden bunkbed, on the floor (to the left of where Alyx climbs up to get the plug). If you can’t find it, see the gnome location in this video.

The Beginning

This part of the game is actually a little annoying, as it consists of a lot of gnome carrying. This means you cannot sprint, and you cannot keep a weapon out (but you can always drop the gnome and your gun will be ready). Don’t worry, it’ll get better.

The Antlion Attack (in the tunnels)

You can leave the gnome anywhere, but I would warn against anyplace it might get hit by an antlion. Don’t leave it down by Alyx, as it could fall down the elevator shaft. I chose to put it up on the platform, away from the tunnels. This also allowed me to keep an eye on him.

After the attack is done, LEAVE HIM HERE. You will be back to heal Alyx, so go have fun getting the larval extract.

Double Antlion Attack (outside)

I set the gnome on top of the antlion repelling machine while I killed the two large antlions. Anywhere is fine, as long as you don’t lose him.

Getting the Car

This is the section where Alyx mans the sniper rifle, and you go through all the sludge up to the bridge where the car is waiting. As I read on the aforementioned blog, you have to be really quick with the gravity gun if you leave the gnome with Alyx here (and you definitely don’t want to take the gnome with you, ugh). Since I knew what was involved, I thought of a little trick to take care of this problem. I stacked a crate on top of a small health pack, against the door, with the gnome on top:

After I went all the way around and got the car, I was able to hit the switch to open the door, and have him fall through (with a little push from the Vortigaunt). You can see me do this trick in this video (sorry for the quality, I was being lazy and just filmed the tv screen):

Even easier:

Roger: Here’s a shortcut when you have to get the car. You can blast the gnome onto bridge (the part where you will land the car) if you lean out the opening that’s close to the sniper rifle Alyx uses. Be sure to save as it took me a couple tries.

My way was more fun though, I like making things overly complicated. ;) I guess it’s the Rube Goldberg part of me.

Now you’re going to have to drive the gnome around with you, which isn’t much fun. Other people have been able to wedge the gnome in the car by placing him on the back window, driving forward and slamming on the brakes, causing him to get stuck. If you can do that, great, otherwise I’d put him right here, behind the steering wheel:

That keeps him from moving forward or back, though if you turn sharply he’ll still slide out. If you’re wondering why my health is so low in that shot, it’s because I had just jumped off a cliff to save Mr. Gnome who fell out of the car.

The Hunter Attack

Alyx will contact White Forest, and you’ll have to fight a bunch of Hunters. I think I left the gnome by the car, and no one messed with him.

The Advisor

Not much to say here, but note that after the “cutscene” your car will be teleported to the front, but the gnome will not, if you left him in the car. So you’ll have to go find him, or just don’t leave him in the car.

The Hunter-Chopper Attack

This is the hardest part of the achievement, normally, but I did it the easy way. It’s hard because you need to drive fast enough so the helicopter doesn’t shoot you, but slow enough so the gnome doesn’t fall out. Well instead of that, I first shot the gnome as far as I could with the gravity gun, towards the train yard. Quickly jumping into the car, I sped down to where the gnome landed, jumped out, shot him farther, kept driving. When I got to the train yard (after breaking through the fence), I grabbed the gnome and left him underneath the very first train car.

I completed this section like normal, and drove through the train yard to the tunnel where it loads the next section. After it loaded, I hit reverse to make it reload the previous section, but now the helicopter was gone, so I drove back, got Mr. Gnome, and continued on. Maybe I could have left the gnome all the way back at the house, but I wasn’t sure if this would work, and it was pretty easy to get him that far.

It’s also possible to destroy the chopper, though you’ll have to do it again here:

Destroying the Hunter-Chopper

Just leave him under one of the train cars for protection. One of the mines knocked him away, but he didn’t go far.

Disabling the Autogun

After you destroy the helicopter and go inside, you can leave the gnome in the garage. You will come back to this room to get the car. You need to go around, ducking through the yard of dead cars to destroy the autogun. After you do that and come back, the car will be fixed, inside, and the door will be open; no tricks needed, anywhere is fine.

Ambush at White Forest Inn

Your car gets trapped between two forcefields here. I ran inside with the gnome, and put him safely in the fireplace:

No one bothered him here, and I wanted to make sure I’d be able to find him again.

You can leave him here as you run back up the road to knock out the energy ball, and you’re just about done. You will continue driving, meet DOG, and get to White Forest…

Bye Mr. Gnome

The rocket is right inside, so don’t pass it up and keep fighting! You basically have the whole last chapter left, without the gnome, thankfully.

Toss him in, shut the door, and you’re done. On the 360, it will pop up the achievement icon right away. What do you get? Thirty lousy points. That’s the downside of having so many freakin’ games on one disc.

i named my gnome the travinlg pain i love the guide but it hard then heck sometimes i left it next to alex one time got it it went flyng in the car killed me O_O the guide reminded me to close it YAYA your get 30 points for lugging a stupid gnome areound 3 efffin chapters then supring you forgot the door good job you lugged the traving gnome evrywere like a securaty blakent for meney epic and less pice time ( note thios is waht i think about lugging him allso im trying to be funny) eather way the gnome is a good compain sometimes his pointy tip can kill anlionsn sometimes then he cued kill you sometimes

I’m about 1/2 way or so done with the achievement, a couple notes to update the blog:

The Advisor) Did this bit before I found this post. I left the gnome in the car. The APC crashed in to where I left the car and dislodged the gnome, he just moved about 5 feet, no big deal. I left him there and drove the car through the tunnel and came right back like you suggested. The gnome was right where I left him, so you don’t have to worry about bringing him to the train cars.

The Hunter-Chopper Attack) I spent nearly all my ammo before I realized I could throw mines at the helo. I missed an achievement here, so I’ll catch it the next time I come around. Right next to where Alyx gives you med packs, there’s a little machine or something in a corner and I put the gnome under it and it stayed put. I’ll load an old save and take a couple screens of the hiding spot and email them to you.

Disabling the Autogun) I put the gnome in front of the table by the back door on the floor, apparently right where you find the car once you disable the autogun… this removes the gnome alltogether. I’d suggest putting it by the tires.

You seem rather protective of the gnome, making sure he’s safe all the time and whatnot. Are you afraid he’s going to get shot and die or something? :P

Nah, but if an explosion hits him, he’ll go FLYING!

I did the achievement without that guide, and ended up bring the gnome with me when I was getting the car.

I put him down on an island while crossing the polluted river, and he got hit by a grenade from a zombine, and went 30 feet into the muck. Despite knowing the general area where he flew, I spent a half hour trying to pull him back with the gravity gun from the island. Not fun.

But there are plenty of times where he could fall where you can’t get him, and then you either need to load a save or immediately die.

Sounds like a good idea Amber! I know I’d appreciate something like that. However, unless you buy an actual garden gnome, I think you’re out of luck. There is a chance Valve will do a plush toy as they have done with the Weighted Companion Cube and headcrab (those may do in place of Gnome Chompski!) – keep an eye on http://store.valvesoftware.com or their news page.

I got the little &*#@er into the nosecone… and I didn’t close the door… I figured once I got the rocket launched, I’d get the achievement…. so I go throw the entire Strider sequence, push the button, the rocket launches, and…. nothing…. NOTHING!! That’s when I came to this site and read that you had to close the dang door…

Fortunately for me, I’d had a fairly convenient savepoint set and I only had to wade through some cutscene conversation and a group hug on an elevator to get back to where I needed to get to to finish up..

I got the achievement finally after forgetting to close the door and having to reload a save a little bit back. Did anyone else notice when Kleiner says something like \Payload variance of 8 and a half pounds\ and magnusson says \That’s well within limits, nothing to worry about.\ I think that’s the gnome! and maybe lamarr….anyways, it’s a pretty cool achievment, tho I wonder what the secret achiement is….

lol that was funny u had to save mr gnome anyways i named mine hamburger cuz hes so fat!And one time the frickin gnome flew out of the back and i had to spend 2 hours looking for it!!!
and then i finally found it @ the white forest inn!

So the scientists would launch a rocket with the payload door open? Clearly those expensive educations pay for themselves. I guess we can console ourselves with the notion that they noticed the door was open later and went to close it. Finding the gnome, Magnussen probably launched into another tirade. Unfortunately we never get to hear it. :(

Left my Gnome in the shop while car was getting fixed. When you say anywhere is safe maybe you should mention that the bencj in the middle of the shop it gone, along with anything that was sitting on it when you get back, including my damn gnome! I hate your guide, hate its guts!

The Advisor: I just punted him over the fence at the begining; you’ll eventually get to him after the ambush. I kept punting him down the tracks and nearly died in the process… and the anticlimax? He flew away after a mine assualt while I was busy taking down the chopper, and the closest save is WAY back at the beginning of chapter 3, right after I killed the guards.
Uugh. I hate that frigging gnome now.

Omg im still working on getting that damned gnome from the advisor to the base. Its such a pain, they shouldve made it so you could atleast put him in the backseat and NOT have him go flying out as soon as you step on the gas. But a helpful hint is if you do put him in the back window drive in reverse. it makes you go slower but you never have to worry about flying throug ha chapter without him :D

I caved in and bought this game after hearing about this achievement from a friend. This was in the fall right around the time it came out so there really wasn’t too much about it online other than what the achievement was and roughly where you could find the gnome.

I ended up lugging that damn thing through every nook of that game including the antlion den and the sewage plant. I even ignored the first appearance of the rocket and brought it into the final strider battle because my friend told me that I had to put it into the rocket at the VERY end of the game.

Man I was pissed when I saw the rocket blast off at the end and I still had the gnome in my hands.

so i go and i put my gnome in and for good measure a few other things ive been carrying about into the rocket and so i go and hit it with the crow bar and through in a few grenades then the npc’s talk to me and im just like ummm errr

stupid Gnome, i finally got all the way there and didnt shut the door and closest save i have is in the antlion caves :/ also during the section where you have to go and get the car across the bridge i left the gnome inside with Alyx, luckily i managed to prop a forklift thing onto the door, prongs facing up, so when i hit the lever it held the door open so i could grab the gnome :D however i think it was probably luck that i managed to get it into place so i wouldnt recommend doing it unless you accidentally leave him in there

i named my gnome the travinlg pain i love the guide but it hard then heck sometimes i left it next to alex one time got it it went flyng in the car killed me O_O the guide reminded me to close it YAYA your get 30 points for lugging a stupid gnome areound 3 efffin chapters then supring you forgot the door good job you lugged the traving gnome evrywere like a securaty blakent for meney epic and less pice time ( note thios is waht i think about lugging him allso im trying to be funny) eather way the gnome is a good compain sometimes his pointy tip can kill anlionsn sometimes then he cued kill you sometimes

So the scientists would launch a rocket with the payload door open? Clearly those expensive educations pay for themselves. I guess we can console ourselves with the notion that they noticed the door was open later and went to close it. Finding the gnome, Magnussen probably launched into another tirade. Unfortunately we never get to hear it. :(

Thanks for the tips anyway. :)

That would be totally epic! It’s too bad Valve didn’t do that, like the breaking monitors one in Portal 2.

Ugh. Years ago I put the little fellow in the rocket, but did not get the achievement. I thought if I waited it would come along, but it never did. That machine has gone to the computers in the sky, so I guess I will have to play again and shut the ******** door…

You may not be able to sprint while carrying an object but you can gain more ground while doing it by hitting the Jump button. You’ll be able to hop skip and jump like a Freeman fairy with your little gnome. ….not that there’s anything wrong with that.